The infamous demigod
by crona234
Summary: This world has been harsh to me. Death, destruction fill my life. Now the people that have once tried to kill me are relying on me to save them, but they aren't the only one's who seek my help. My supposed enemy's wish my help as well, and the truth reviled itself to me. The results are that both of my choices aren't as black and white as I assumed they be (Percy is a son of Zeus
1. Prolouge

My eyes opened slowly as if there were iron weights attached to them. The sky was the color of the blood of a fresh wound, and the clouds were as black as the cloak of death himself. The rubble of ruined buildings littered the streets, or should I say what's left of the streets. The streets were mainly just rubble mixed in with dirt and shards of glass. It strangely reminded me of crushed up oreo cookies. Almost all of the buildings were half destroyed or completely knocked down. Seattle's iconic space needle was half it's original size, but was still an iconic point in this ruined city. It stood taller than all the buildings around it. I remember looking at it when I was only a wee boy. My eyes used to light up when I saw it at night. I always thought it looked more like a beacon than a needle. It used to be a light that dazzled me when I was young and even today. But that light is gone now, and in it's place is a hollow tower of it's original greatness. It truly was a sad sight to see, especially if you're a fellow Seattleite. My head suddenly began to throb. I fell back to the rubbled with my vision blurring up. As I was losing conscious I heard a faint ringing in my ear. My eyelids opened as the ringing became louder and more obnoxious. When my eyes were fully opened I saw my white bedroom ceiling and the dark blue walls. It didn't take my mind long to figure out what I had just witnessed. It was another nightmare. These dreams were a recurring pattern in my world of sleep. It had been about two months since they first started. They didn't happen every night, but when they did it felt like it wasn't just a dream but instead a twisted reality that I was forced to inhabit. The time's they happened were unpredictable, but from what I noticed the nightmares always occur at least every three days. I wasn't counting how many dreams I had about this, but no matter how many times I had them they all were in the same place. It was always that ruined version of Seattle that looked like it came out of apocalypse monthly. It had been about two months since they first started. I yawned loudly as I rose from my bed. My alarm clock was still buzzing loudly. "Shut up," I muttered as I pressed the off button. I slumped back into bed to get five more minutes of sleep. Suddenly, a sting erupted in my forehead. I quickly got up and held my hand to where the pain was. I looked down to my lap to find my culprit. It was a blue rubber band. I began to hear the all too familiar laugh of my best friend, Rob "Goddammit, Rob!" I muttered loudly.  
"Wakey, wakey, Percy," Rob said in a cheerful voice. As my vision cleared, I saw the joking smile Rob loved to parade around like a badge. His long dark brown hair was slicked back, and his green eyes appeared to be shining in the light that was shining through the window. Rob had been my best friend for god knows how long. Some of you probably had that friend that you can never trace the roots of your friendship. For me that was Rob. It didn't seem our friendship had a definitive beginning. We just were always friends. Even our parents had a hard time giving our friendship a specific date and time. That didn't bother me and Rob though. We hadn't cared about how we met. The only thing that matters is that we were friends now, but just because we had been best friends doesn't mean that he can't be a freeloading asshole who shoots rubber bands at people instead of walking them up because he thinks it's funny. In fact that's exactly what I would use to describe his personality. Well, I've been told that I'm a snarky, sarcastic asshole so I guess that it's no wonder we're best friends. It's a match made in heaven.

"Rob, seriously that's the third time this month. Can't you leave me alone for like… five minutes?" I said yawning as I looked up to see my brown haired friend.

"Well I would if you didn't have the habit of going back to sleep after your alarm goes off," he said with mischief in his green eyes. "Now get out of bed or else I'm going to have to do something drastic. Your mom's making blueberry pancakes, and She won't serve them unless you come down. He held up another rubber band with an evil smile in his eyes.

"Alright I'll be down in a sec. I'm just going to get ready," I said still yawning.

"Make sure not to be late or else I'm going to eat the rest," Rob said playfully .I quickly went to my wardrobe and got my clothes. Once I got dressed, I looked in my mirror. My blonde hair was golden, but there were tiny darker streaks in my hair. My eyes seemed no different from before. They were electric blue, but seemed to be slightly darker than they usually were. I didn't elaborate why I looked differently at the time and in my ignorance blamed it on the lighting. Satisfied with how I looked, I hurried down my stairs to the kitchen. I was greeted by the shine of white tiles and the smell of bacon cooking. In the small round table sat Rob who started eating without me.

Good morning, Percy," Mom said sweetly. She looked like she had gotten prepared for work before hand because her blonde hair had been straightened and she was dressed in a dark blue business suit.

"thanks for breakfast mom," I said with a smile. She looked at me and gave a tired smile back. It was obvious that she had to stay up late last night to do work. Looking at her condition almost made me cringe. I guess I should fill you in on my family matters. My mother told me that father had walked out on us long when my mother was in her twenties. My mom came from a broken family. My grandmother died when mom was only four. Apparently after that my mom's father relied on the bottle to comfort his sorrows. He then stopped paying the bills or even working. The only thing he did was drink and drink. that caused the entire family to go into large amounts of debt. My grandfather didn't care though. The bottle was all he cared about at that point. When the old bastard finally kicked the bucket the damage was already done. They would have lost the house if it wasn't for my uncle Rodney. Uncle Rodney was my mom's eldest sibling, and he had fortunately had his college tuition paid for. He also already had a job as an electrical engineer. When he heard that his siblings were in trouble he didn't hesitate to come over and do whatever he could to make things right. He was barely able to keep the entire house afloat. He managed to barely keep the house from going into foreclosure, and he was barely able to keep the my mother and her three siblings from falling apart. Without him I'd be very likely that my life would be very different if I was born at all. But the damage was already done. My mother and her siblings college accounts were drunken and gambled away. Fortunately my moms siblings still had a good two years at most to build it back up but my mother had already graduated high school. She had to get college loans to stay leaving her with a mountain of debt by the end of college. And that's when she met my father. To this day she still hasn't paid off the debt that accumulated when she went to college. She always said it was fine but I knew it wasn't. A month ago I when I went down to get a glass of water. I had just had that nightmare, and I wanted something to calm my nerves. I went down the stairs quietly because mom also works a lot on the computer so it was common for her to fall asleep while working. To my surprise though, I saw mom talking on the looked absolutely horrible. Her blonde hair was disorganized and thrown all over the place, her face showed lines of worry and fear, and she was biting her nails which is a habit mom had when she was stressed. I remember her saying Rodney please, and when she said that I immediately assumed that she was talking to Uncle Rodney. It was obvious that she was asking for money from him. I didn't hear what he said back to her, but it was obvious it didn't make her happy one bit.

"I'm in over my head Rodney! Please I need your help! I have a son whose father isn't doing jack shit to help us, and you can't spare some money to help us!" My mom said screaming. Mom's eyes widened and her mouth opened at the realization of her outburst. "I'm sorry," she said tearfully, "It's just been so in 40,000 dollars of debt, and I just need some help please," mom said as small driblets of tears ran down her face. I had to bite my tongue to keep from making a sound. How were we in such bad shape. I knew we weren't in the greatest financial space before hand, but this was just unbelievable. My mother was able to make 60,000 dollars a year, but deducting all the expenses for food, clothing, etc she wouldn't have enough to pay off all the debt. she then said she was considering going into debt consolidation even though there was a chance that if she did she'd go bankrupt. After that I slid away undetected. I didn't even want any water. I had lost my will to drink when I heard that. If any of you had been in a bad financial position like this you'd know where we were coming from. The stress of the possibility that you may lose everything thing you have is something that can keep you up for more than one night. Anyway on to more lighter topics. As I sat down Robert flashed me His traditional sorry for doing that, but not really because I'm going to do it again the next chance you give me grin.  
"Thank you robert for not only not waiting for me but eating half of the food even though this is my house, and you're lucky to be even allowed here much less eat here," I said snarkily.

"Blame puberty," he said with a stuffed face.  
"That's your excuse for literally everything. When you fail a math test just blame puberty, don't give back money you borrowed, just blame puberty, become a psychopathic axe murder who rapes his victimes before killing them, just blame puberty and everything will be alright.  
"That's my basic philosophy at least. Hey, there's still some bacon left," He said as he extended his hand.  
"Oh, no you don't asshole." I picked up my spoon slammed into his fingers causing him to screech. Some electricity must have been in my strike because he convulsed for a second

"Jesus Perc! Is pig fat really that important to you?" he said as he sucked his wounded fingers.

"Blame puberty," I muttered as I took the entire plate for myself.

"Oh, so you're going all alpha male on me now, and hoarding all the food for yourself," he said snarkily. What's next are you going to take all the females for yourself while you leave me with a mound of dirt to pleasure myself with?"

"In a perfect world I'd be the only one with proper gentials to reproduce with, so I could pick and choose. But that isn't that far off from my idea of paradise." I quickly checked the wall clock to see how much time I had left, and of course just when I started eating I only had five minutes left. Yeah that's just great. Now I have to guzzle my food down my throat like I'm in hot dog eating contest. Oh, and for the people who are…. slow I'm being sarcastic. Alright that's one time I've insulted your intelligence in this story so let's see how many times I can. As I munched down everything I couldn't help but notice how relaxing life is like this. Sure sometimes none debt related problems can come into our lives, but we can deal with them. The idea of how peaceful it was made me smile. But those relatively sunny moments are soon going to be covered by the black cloud of debt. Remembering the gigantic hurricane heading our way made my smile disappear as quick as it came .I didn't know how long we had until we had to face this problem, but I knew no matter how long it took we'd have to deal with it either way. The thought made my food taste bland and soggy even though pancakes was one of my favorite meals for breakfast. Rob began to poke my arm with his fork like I was an odd piece of mystery meat that you see being served in your stereotypical shallow slice of life high school books. He smiled at me. His teeth were nearly white except a few blemishes on the top. I smiled back at good thing about Rob is that he's able to tell when your upset about something. Granted he doesn't do anything to significant on most occasions, but who said he needed to. Rob knew I liked to keep my problems to myself, so he figured that he would show that he cared about my problems in a tiny way. Letting me now that I'm not alone per say. He knew trying to squeeze into my problems would only make it worse. My mentality back then was to keep it locked up and let it die out like it was an animal in a cage without any food or water. The flaw with that is that the cage is only so big. You can't fit an elephant in a lion cage no matter how hard you try .To a degree I still do that now. Not that I don't rely on peoples help, but if I think the problem can be handled on my own I'll handle it on my own. Mom said that it wasn't healthy to keep things bottled up, but from experience it worked wonders for me.

"Oh look at the time! Boy's it's time to head off to school," Mom said. I cursed under my breath. I had barely finished half of my food, and now I'm going to be hungry until lunch. That's just perfect. I cleaned my plate off, got my bag, and waited for Rob at the door. Before we left mom kissed my cheek. "have a good day you two. I'll see you when you get home Percy."

"Ok, love you to mom," I said quickly as Rob and I headed out the door. The walk to our school was normally long, tedious, and boring, but today was different though. The smell of spring flowers from people's yards gave the air a pleasant smell . It was definitely a step above the rather bland and depressing look of winter this year. We didn't get a lot of snow this year so the trees were stuck in this dead and barren state. There was rarely enough snow to give the trees that genuine white christmas look, so through the entire winter we were stuck with this gray, depressing look of Seattle. Now it finally seemed like nature was beginning to get back it's personality. The walk to school wasn't long one, but looking back on it I could remember every detail of the walk. The temperature was in the high sixties, the morning dew soaked my shoes as we cut through someone's lawn. Hell, Rob even made his typical immature jokes, and incase any of you were wondering yes I did laugh. I was twelve at the time so what do you honestly expect. We were about two minutes away from school I felt a large spherical object hit my head as I was walked. I turned around with rage in my eyes to see the culprit. Rickey High looked at me with that disgusting smug smile on showing off his clear white very sight of him made me want to barth on his silky blonde hair. Rickey was your typical douchebag pretty boy. He had a build that represented a model even though he's in seventh grade, designer clothes that was probably worth more than my entire house, hair so light that you might mistake him for an albino if you're far away, and pale blue eyes that seemed to be almost white. His personality consisted of such a generic middle school bully he might as well be on your typical kids comedy like Icarly or Victorious. He reminded me of that bully from altered fates. They were essential the same people with both of them thinking they're better than you, and will eventually get their ass kicked by the main protagonist. Oh I just spoiled something there, but this is the prologue and I bet 87% of you have already figure out how this chapter will end. The only real difference between them is that Colt takes tennis lessons. It's kinda hard to imagine this towering figure in white shorts and a polo shirt

"Well, isn't it the two lovers. Do you guys ever separate from each other?" Rickey said smiling cockishly. I felt like punching all his clear white teeth out, and replace it with a bloody mess. But unfortunately I knew if I tried not only would I get my ass kicked, but I'd get in trouble as well. Blowing up any electronic was also out of the question because if I did that he'd likely be horribly to the point of no return. But as much as I hated Rickey, he did have a point. Rob and I were with each other nearly twenty four seven. We did have other friends, but when we saw them me and Rob were usually together. So, it could be easy to mistake me and Rob had something going on. Some people actually asked if we were dating, but we both denied it right away. Rickey knew we weren't gay, but he still called us fag, queer, homo, and of course who could forget to gay to live. His cocky didn't waver as he said, "You guys know me that you're mistakes right? Homosexuality wasn't designed to exist," he said as he flipped back his starchy hair. I clenched my teeth. I knew he was batting me into a conflict, but he was just so damn good at doing it. I couldn't help but to respond.

"Screw off you bigoted ass wipe," I said irritably. His snarky smile grew. He was like a mosquito draining blood from his victim if the blood was my life force and tolerance.

"Big talk for someone who should be wearing a dress." My blood began to burn like it was oil light on fire. I charged at him. Looking back on it that wasn't a good idea considering he was a towering 6.2 and I was only 5.7 at the time. He didn't react as I ran towards him. Just as my fist came close to his face I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. I didn't even see him swing his fist. It was like the wind had socked me in the gut .I moaned slowly as I kneeled down and clutched my stomach. "Well, it look's like someone just tried to attack me," he said as a sadistic grin popped on his face. "So that mean's you accept the consequences of whatever's going to happen next," he said as he cracked his knuckles.

CLUNK!

Rickey staggered back in pain as a tennis ball bounced on the ground. I took that moment to stamper away from him. Rob picked me up and we made a quick dash.

" Hey, maybe you shouldn't pick on someone who should be wearing a dress," Rob said as we dashed away.

"Just you wait! Both of you will pay!" he screamed at us. His white hair was in his eyes as he screamed. We didn't stop until the school was close in our sight.

"Whew! You really saved my ass out there, Rob," I said painting like a dog.  
"Well, I couldn't just leave my best friend to get beat up by an albino," Rob said.

Our ears were met with the ring of a bell and the rumbling of feet. Hundreds of kids crowded together at shoulder length struggled to get into the three tiny doors. I didn't even bother trying to join into the fray. If I was a bit earlier I would have clawed my way through the door, but since I was late I'd have to wait for the crowd to die down. Once the crowd died down we slipped in effortlessly through the door. Once we were in we quickly hurried towards the elevator. Now that was something worth fighting for. Everybody hated walking up three flights of stairs just to get to their class, and everyone was willing to fight tooth and nail to get in. Now you may be thinking that I'm overaccterating how popular the elevator is, but I'm being 100% serious with you. By the time I was able to get in someone had kicked me in the groin and punched my neck, so to say the least the experience wasn't very pleasant. The elevator had ten people inside despite being made to fit only eight, so we all were packed in like sardines. Not like I was even paying attention to the fact that I was packed in with a bunch of sweaty teenagers because my crotch was still killing me. Once Robert and I were off the elevator, he and I went to our separate homerooms. No words were exchanged as we went our separate ways. We both knew that we're going to be stuck with each other when school let's out. When I got to my class I was greeted by a hello from Mr. Brunner who was sitting in his desk. Mr. Brunner was my english teacher and my homeroom teacher. He's a middle aged teacher who thinning brown hair, bushy eyebrows, a scruffy beard that was half it's original length now that it was spring , and dark brown eyes that seemed to stare into your soul when he was upset. He also always seemed to be nice to me for some reason like I was special which I would immediately say I was even before it happened. I realized why he was treating me like I special when I met his brothers two years later, but of course that's another story for another day. I took my seat next to the window. The early morning sunlight poured through the glass and blinded my eyes. I quickly turned away but there were little green and purple dots in my eyes. I called those little dots floaters because guess what they float in your eyes. Yes I'm being sarcastic there again for people who are slow learners. Well I've insulted you the viewers intelligence twice now! Maybe this can become a thing. When the announcements began to drone over loudspeaker is when I began to enter what I call stand by mode. Stand by mode is basically my body shutting down until further notice. My vision goes fuzzy and sounds become blurry. The only clear thing is my thoughts. My thoughts began to wander back to the dream that's plagued me for two months. It wasn't rare for my mind to wander my nightmare, but no matter how hard I thought upon it I never came up with anything. Mom and the psychiatrist thought that the nightmares were rooted with some psychological issues with my father or more accurately lack of one, but I've never actually felt bad for not having a dad. With the divorce rates being fifty percent I can't see how I'd end up more psychologically damaged than my peers whose parents are divorced. Some could make the argument that I would end off worse because I've never had a father figure in my life, but I've also never really felt alone or uncomfortable without one. Now the real question is if my lack of a father figure isn't to blame here than what is? My thoughts were interrupted short when I heard the dull sound of chairs clanning and my peers getting up. Discarding my previous thoughts for another time, I headed to my next class. That day was actually a typical school day for me. I sat through Mrs. Manzi's boring french class, I eat the sandwich mom made me,and I rushed through my homework in D.A or directed advisory. When the bell finally rang I casually met up with Rob and left the building. After talking with some of our other friends, we both left the area. The wind was beginning to pick up as we walked. I noticed Rob looking at me oddly.  
"What? Do I have something on my face?" I said calmly.

"No, no you just look weird," Rob said as he looked away from me.

"Pshh. I'm beutiful Rob, so you should shut your pig faced mouth," I said sarcastically as I turned my head with a hmph. Despite the way I played off his statement, I couldn't help but look at reflection each time I saw glass or any other shiny surface. From what I saw, I fit the description of weird. My eyes which were once electric blue were sinking into an darkish, almost purple color. My hair wasn't looking much better either. It had lost it's golden blonde look and had more dark strands in it.  
"Shit. Maybe I'm sick or something," I said with a little quiver in my voice.

"Relax. It's probably just the lighting," Rob said trying to reassure me.

"No, no that can't be it." I looked up to see the sun shining. "There's nothing blocking the sunlight."

"Hey, you probably shouldn't worry about this too much right now. For all we know nothing could be wrong with you. If you aren't suffering from any physical pain than I wouldn't stress about it too much.

"So basically you're saying that I shouldn't be worried that my eyes and hair have changed color? That's a swell idea Rob!"

"Relax it was just a joke, Perc."  
"Really because I doubt you can't tell a joke without a dick involved." He playfully shoved me. The wind felt like daggers on my skin and made me shiver. The news didn't predict that it was going to be windy, but it wouldn't be the first time that they were wrong before. As we walked, the wind began to pick up more intensity. New green leaves were knocked off their trees and sent into the air.

"Hey guys," a harsh tone said from behind. When I turned around I saw Colt 's silk blonde hair, snarky smile, and smoky, black wings. I stepped back quickly. I was almost going to say "the fuck!" but Rob beat me to it " Well, isn't it nice to see you two again. I still haven't paid you back for trying to attack me son of Zeus, and I suppose I can also deal with that little nuisance that threw a tennis ball at me. A forceful blast of wind struck me like a metal bat. I braced myself for the hard brick wall, but was surprised when my body slammed into the cold, hard ground. I was in a dark alley. As I struggled to get up, moaning was evident ahead of me. There I saw Rob lying on the ground. Colt was tracing a dagger near Rob's throat. There was a small gash on his forehead. "So Robert, describe to me in detail how funny it was to throw that tennis ball at me. Don't be shy," He said mockingly. Colt cut a wound on Rob's arm. My anger began to flare. Using my newfound strength, I charged at Colt . I didn't even get close to him. I was brushed aside like a paper bag into the wall. He fixed his gaze on me. "Wait your turn son of Zeus. I'll handle you after I deal with this little nuisance," Colt said as he immediately went back to torching Rob. I didn't even know what he was talking about when he said called me a son of Zeus, but I didn't even care. My rage was growing by the millisecond. I grabbed a stray rock on the floor and sprinted at Colt

"Get the fuck off him!" I screamed as I threw it at him. The rock slammed into his cheek with tremendous force. A deep gash broke through the skin of his cheek. A golden liquid dripped out of the wound. A powerful gale of wind immediately slammed me to the ground.

"Oh! Looks like someone's getting a little ballsy!" He said sadistically. "I'll make sure that you're death is extra painful!" A twisted smile appeared on his face as he turned his attention back to Rob. "But first." Colt walked back to Rob and held the dagger to his throat. "I'm gonna kill him."

"Don't you dare you fuck!" I struggled to get up, but another gale of wind slammed me back.

"Ah, ah, ah! You'll have to wait your turn for me to kill you," he said mockingly. My anger began to morph into fear for both Rob's and my life.  
"Please. Don't do this," I said sorrowfully. Rickey's smile grew into a sadistic grin. He pressed the knife against Rob's throat. tiny beads of blood appeared on Rob's throat as he pressed it down. Rob's eye's seemed to spring back to life as the blood began to leak from his neck.

"Stop now!" I stuttered. "Please!"

"You see maybe I'd consider sparing his life if you didn't throw that rock at me." He slid the blade slowly across Rob's neck. Rob's mouth seemed to open slowly and close as if he was trying to speak, His eyes flickered rapidly like he thought he was dreaming this scene, and this entire time he stared at me with eyes that practically screamed help. Rob's eye fluttering stopped when Colt cut his entire throat. Colt let go of Rob's hair. Rob fell to the ground lifelessly. A pool of blood began to gather around Rob's throat. I didn't make an effort to get up. I didn't have the strength or will to move. My body had completely shut down. I barely even noticed the pain of the dagger as it went directly into my stomach. The warm red liquid began to pour out like a river. I made no effort to even fight. It was hopeless after all. Rob was dead and I was stabbed. Even if I tried to fight I'd be killed quickly, So I just laid there waiting for death to whisk me away to gods no where. I heard Colt spit. "Pathetic. You're the only son of Zeus I've seen to just give up, but I guess I can't expect more from a demigod who was raised by mortals," He said with disgust. He turned his head back to Rob.

"Oh, it looks like your friend managed to live getting a slit throat. I guess I didn't cut deep enough. Well, that's okay. It's an easy mistake to fix." He held up his dagger and walked towards Rob. Athena told me that my transformation occurred at age twelve because that was the time that your average demigod powers begin to appear, but she also said that being fatally wounded by Colt could have possibly accelerated the process. I can't help but disagree with that because when I saw Colt going to finish Rob off I felt something powerful and dangerous bellow through me. Newfound anger began to pour into me, but this anger was different. It was a primordial anger that was beyond human rational. No thoughts came through me but to kill the threat. .I remember hearing jolts of electricity as my wound quickly closed. I got up quickly despite slipping a few times.

"Let him go," I said coolly.

"Oh, so I guess I did a poor job on yo-." He stopped. Colt's face contorted from cockiness to fear in an instant.I didn't even register it at the time. I moved as fast as the wind and grabbed Colt. I was moving so fast that a brick wall was the only thing that stopped me. I slammed my hand onto Colt's forehead. I pulsed as much electricity as I could into him. He screamed in agony as was being electrocuted. He was eventually reduced to nothing but a pile of ashes, burnt meat, and bones. I felt myself calm down. I then immediately turned my attention back to Rob. He was bleeding out pretty bad, but I could still see him breathing. I began to run to him only to fall back down. A dark aura began to form around me. I couldn't move. I could only watch as everything began to get consumed by darkness. The alley, the rock, Colt's remains, and Rob were all consumed by the waves of darkness. What I saw next was worse than I could have ever seen in my nightmares.


	2. Chapter 2

The taxi began to shudder the driver ran over a bumpy street. Little flakes of snow hit the windows signaling a greater storm to come. I wasn't focusing on the snow or the road though, but instead I was focused on my own irritation. "So our first night back in the US is going to be spent finding two demigods who could be easily found even if my father sent somebody other than us to get them," I said sighing. Luke chuckled slightly as he turned towards me.

"I'm just glad that we're out of that Siberia," Luke said with relief.  
"Yeah, if I spent another day sleeping on the snow, I probably would begin to shit ice," I said smiling. He smiled and said "It was your bright idea to bring only two layers of clothes," He said as he played with his bronze ring.

"Yes and you would know that my father said that it was only going to be a one day mission, but the plane crashed leaving us bumfucked in the wild. I swear we should get paid more than two million each, and I'm going to have him get as a higher quality plane. I swear that plane was out of 1907. That little mishap made a one day mission turn into a twelve day mission. But thank god for that bottomless bag that Armin gave us." Armin was a old son of Hades who participated in World War ll. He was on… the losing side of the war, but He managed to escape from Germany and traveled to the US with the help of his father. We first met him three years back. Both me and Luke were on the run because we didn't have the relationship we had now with the Olympians. Our heads were wanted on a silver platter so to speak. He took us under his wing temporarily. He was a kind old man who didn't mind helping out foreign demigods. He fed us, gave us a place to sleep, and gave supplies like the bottomless backpack and some new weapons for Luke. When Armin left Germany he managed to take hordes of guns with him to the US. I'm not talking about regular WWll machine guns and rifles you see at museums. The guns the demigods were using were all magically enchanted. They had things like bottomless clips and could minimize into pocket sized objects. The demigods in the war got so carried away with the weapons, the Olympians had to confiscate them all. They were banned, from being made, soon after that, But Armin managed to smuggle some in. He was already marked for death, so taking a few guns isn't going to hurt him. He gave Luke a Colt that reloaded once you spun the cylinder and a Walther Gewehr 43 which was a scoped semi auto rifle that had a bottomless clip.

"How many rations of food did you put in it again, I said as I flipped a piece of my black hair out of my eyes.

"Over seven months worth of food, water, and electricity," he said casually

I raised my eyebrow. "You managed to put a generator in that bag."

"Well, it isn't the strangest thing I've put in there.  
"And that would be?"

"Remember Hera's peacock?"  
"Oh yeah that definitely takes the cake of strange and bad things we had to put in that bag. That thing is the reason I don't do fetch quests anymore," I said as I crossed my arms

"But if you think about it, this mission is like a fetch quest."

"Using logic and reason again, Luke."

"Sir we're here," the cab driver said awkwardly. To be honest, I had completely forgotten that he existed, but forgetting that people existed is normal behavior of me.

"Great!"

I handed the man thirty dollars, and we stepped out of the car. "So, this is the place?" I asked Luke.

"Yep. Westover Hall, this is the place."

"Lets get this shit over with and go home. I want to eat something that isn't covered in twelve sheets of ice or sleep without a wolverine gnawing on my throat. Maybe we could take a vacation and go to someplace tropical. Maybe the Carribean," I said as we walked up the Westover's staircase.

Westover Hall seemed more like a fortress than a military academy. The entire building was a menacing black stone with slit windows. The only door in sight was a large oak door that added to it's medieval fortress feel. I half expected knights with broadswords to be guarding the door. The oak doors opened with a loud creak. The inside of the Westover Hall made the medieval ever more present. The walls were decorated with antique rifles, muskets, swords, and battle axes. "Damn! this place is almost as big as Armin's armory," I said as my eyes darted towards the antique weapons. I was too wrapped up in the antique weapons, I didn't notice the two figures walking towards us.

"Who are you two!," a man's voice sternly. We turned around to see a man and a woman staring at us. The man was clean cut and shaved, but the women had a full mustache! I would have said something, but I was too busy looking at her mustache..

"Visitors are not allowed to the dance! Get out immediately!" the man said. He seemed to have a french accent. The man was tall, with a hawkish face. His eyes seemed to detect every single move we made. It was like he was a predator which was stalking his prey.

"No sir you have it wrong. We're students here," Luke said as he waved his hand across their faces." The man raised his eyebrow.

"Ms. Gottschalk, do you know these two?" the man said as he turned towards her. Small snickers of laughter escaped my throat, while Luke kept his mouth shut like an iron gate. Ms. Gottschalk glared at me, menacingly.

"I do believe I recognize these boys, Mr. Thorn." She looked at me with disgust. That one's arrogance is unfortunately….. familiar, Ms. Gottschalk said as she glared daggers at me.  
"Very well than. You may enter the dance," Mr. Thorn said. I nodded my head, and we began to walk towards the entrance " Oh and you the one with the long black hair." I stopped walking and turned towards him "I'd take those red contacts out of your eye's. It makes you look even more undisciplined. Ms. Gottschalk looked at Thorn.

"What are you talking about? The boy's eyes are green." I didn't look back at them.

"Well, it looks like we have a monster on our hands Luke, I whispered as I clapped my hands excitedly. Luke nodded as we walked. It was kinda funny how different I looked. I looked like a vampire that was in the twilight movies. I had long hair and red eyes. Now all I needed to do was sparkle and I'd be in the next book.

" It's very likely that Thorn is looking for the demigods as well. If we go into the dance, Thorn likely won't pursue us until we exit. I can't guarantee he won't attack us when we're out.

"I wonder what kind of monster Thorn is? A chimera maybe? I've heard some of them can transform into human form, or maybe he's a manticore? We've never run into one of those things. I'd be nice finally see one."

"So you're hoping that Thorn turns out to be a rare and powerful monster."  
"Call me a masochist."

"I figured you were a sadist for a while."

"I was…. mentally sick, not a sadist,"

I said as we walked into the gymnasium. The generic dance music was cranked up to ear bleeding levels. I wouldn't be surprised if these kids were all death. That'd at least explain why they're able to tolerate this music. Black and red balloons decorated the gym. It seemed like the balloons that would be present at my party

"What do these demigods look like, Luke?

"They're brother and sister, the brother appears to be around 10 while the sister appears to be 12, they both have dark hair and dark eyes, and they appear to be of Italian origin."

"Great. They can make us meatballs when we're done," I said jokingly.

The crowds of kids were the opposite of what you'd expect from a military school. Instead of being disciplined and mature, they as wild as any other group of public school kids. We searched for the two suspected demigods as we broke through the crowds. I guess it's time to admit something to you people. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find anything in the crowd but teenage anger and angst.

After we looked through the entire crowd and found nobody who fit the bill, we had the genius idea of looking outside the massive crowd. That's where I'd be to be honest. I've never been a fan of big crowds; they've always irritated me. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm not around many people in general considering that I'm on quests with look for long periods of time, or maybe I'm not a people person. Probably a little bit of both honestly. But who gives a flying fuck about my problems? You guys aren't reading this for some prick to be talking about his social issues. The ones who weren't huddled in the crowd were on the bleachers. The majority of them had a cell phone or some other electronic device. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I didn't envy those kids on their phones. I actually have rarely touched a cell phone much less call or text on one. Before the incident, I asked my mom if I could have a cell phone. She sternly shot down my request and said I could never use or have one. Looking back on it, it's probably good that she didn't end up buying me a cell phone because for those of you who don't know, a demigod using a cell phone is basically putting their location on google maps. Don't question the logic behind it unless you want a very long winded lecture from Athena. But the weird thing that I've noticed is that the Olympians say that the internet attracts monsters as well, but I use the internet all the time and never run into a monster problem. So there are either two possible scenarios. Monsters are so scared shitless of me that they stay away from my presence, or the gods don't want us looking at internet porn. I'm going with the latter. As I scanned through kids I noticed a boy and a girl who weren't on their phones. They both had dark hair and eyes, the boy looked a couple years younger than the girl, and they both looked of Italian origin.

"Luke, we found our demigods," I said as I pointed towards them. I went to walk towards them only to have Luke grab my shoulder.

"Look who's here," Luke said as he pointed towards the towering figure of Mr. Thorn. He must have came through the doorway through the bleachers in anticipation of us trying to collect the demigods. He nodded coldly in our direction as a means to get us to back of.

"Luke, if I start to attack Thorn do you think you coul-"

"No, I can't hold the demigods, Percy."

"You know me so well don't you? Alright what's our plan than? Luke bit his lip for a second

"Let's not show interest in them. We'll follow him when he takes the demigods. We should be able to reach him in time before he leaves if we keep an eye."  
"And then I can murder him Luke! You're definitely a master strategist.

"Well it isn't hard when I have a queen at my disposal, and I'm going up against a pawn." We quickly began to walk away. Thorn's cold blue eyes begin to leer at me. It was like they were saying for us to go away. We squirmed our way back into the crowd.

"And now we wait." I said.

"Keep an eye on Thorn, but don't make it obvious you're looking at him. Stealth may not be your strong suit, but I believe you can handle it."

"I don't know, you know I'm more of a run and gun type of guy."

"Just try to be stealthy for once! The last thing we need is a bunch of screaming humans," Luke said irritably.

"Okay. I'll be stealthy for once."

Luke nodded. As much as I may hate the waiting for things to happen strategy, Luke did have a good reason for sticking with being stealthy. If we were to go all guns a blazing there'd likely be casualties. Not from us, but from the humans caught in the crossfire. We've both seen and done our fair share of death and destruction. We know how unnecessary death can get, and anyone who has dabbled in it can probably agree with my statement. Luke tapped me on the shoulder.

"He's moving. Let's go!" Luke said quickly. It took me a little while to find him, but I eventually saw Thorn grabbing the two demigods by the scruffs of their necks and heading out the exit. It kinda reminded me the way a mother cat picks up her young, but more malicious and strangely comical. I didn't have time to think about how funny it was. In milliseconds we were running through the crowd to reach Thorn. When we got out of Westover, we were surprised to see that Thorn hadn't gained much ground on us. It looked like one of the kids was struggling with Thorn. The struggle must've slowed him down. When he looked at us, a grim of repulsion hit his the two kids saw us, began to plead cries of help

"Eh, I've already had two deal with two little brats. I don't want to deal with two more Olympus brats," he said as he grinded his teeth. A laugh escaped my lips.

"If you think we're with Olympus you're wrong."

He raised an eyebrow.

'

"Oh, so you're mercenaries for hire, and you've been hired to bring these little brats back."

"Thats the gist of it, so can you save us the trouble and hand them over please?

Thorn chuckled.

"Kronus will be reward me heavily once I return these little brats. I won't have you interfere." Oh, I guess it'd be a good time to fill you in on what exactly the fuck is happening. To put it quick, the god of time, Kronus, is rising again and bringing an army along with him. Since he's going to need some powerful demigods by his side if he can even dream of conquering Olympus, he's resorted to kidnapping young demigods and filling them with as much propaganda as he can before giving them a sword and some painkillers and sending them out to die. The war is much more complicated than that, but it's only the 2nd fucking chapter for crying out loud. As the story progresses, I'll fill you in on the details, but wasn't there something going on? Oh right the kids being kidnapped. God dammit you guys aren't even talking to me and I already feel irritated, but back to dialogue now! "Maybe I'll consider letting you two leave if you beg. Oh who am I kidding! It's been too long for me to go without some fresh meat, and I think you two demigods will suffice," Thorn said as it licked it's lips.

"Oh, you're a cannibal than! So what are we dealing with? I doubt you're a chimera, but you could be a midget cyclops. So is one of those eyes fake, I said excitedly.

"You sell me too short boy." I felt a warm sensation in my chest and throat area. The feeling was all too familiar; blood. When I looked at Thorn again, he changed. His face became as pale as the moon, he had white teeth that only celebrities had, and his blue eyes seemed to be more hazel then brown.

"Maybe if you two didn't pursue, you would have lived," Thorn said joyfully A smile lit across my face.

"Oh, I get now! You're a manticore! I've never seen one before so I kinda gave up all hope that I'd see one, but you're standing right here clear as day. Thank the primordials in Chaos!" I said ecstatically. Thorns face contorted into shock.

"How is it possible that your still alive! You should have bleed out by now!"

"Oh these little scratches? I've seen bees do worse damage to me than this!"

The black thorns fell to the ground as my lacerations closed up.

"No! Don't tell me that you're-"

"The abomination, yes. You actually kind of hurt my self esteem when you didn't recognize me on sight."

Thorn dropped the two demigods as he backed away. They quickly scurried to our side.

"Listen. Since you're my first manticore, I'm going to give you a twenty second head start."

Thorn just stood their with an astonished look on his face.

"What? Have you shit yourself?" I shot a bolt of lightning near him. The black and red bolt of lightning missed him by three feet. The lightning seemed to snap him back in reality. "C'mon! Run Forrest Run!" I said mockingly. It took Thorn less than a millisecond to react. He sprinted into the forest with cheetah like speed.

"Oh, Fuck me! This gonna be a blast!" I turned to the two kids. "Alright. I know that a lot of things must be confusing now, but your questions will be answer in the next two to three hours. I mean there's going to be some questions that even the camp can't answer, but I wouldn't dwell on it too much. Otherwise you'll become weird. Now then I'm Percy and my blonde friend over here is Luke. You can introduce yourselves once I kill and eat Thorn," I said quickly. I turned around "That'll teach that bastard for being a cannibal. Oh look at the time it's been twenty seconds! Well I'm off monster hunting!" Using the wind, I bolted towards Thorn's direction. Thorn wasn't even trying to be quiet. He was sprinting away from me as fast he could without any regard for the noise his footsteps were it was the fear, or he thought I'd find him if he tried to hid. Once he came into my view, I rushed him. Thorn came tumbling to the ground. "Wow! The power of the winds sure are something," I said as I slowed down. Thorn went to get back up and run, but I quickly pulled a switchblade from my pocket. When the blade sprung out, it transformed into a dark Stygian iron blade. Slammed the blunt at his left leg. He screamed in pain as he fell to the ground. "You know what Thorn? I'm kinda disappointed in you. You're the first manticore I meet and you just run without putting up a fight. It's kinda sad to be honest."

"Please! Just make it quick," Thorn begged.

"Alright as long as you're fine with me eating you," I said as I licked my lips.

"Wait wa-." Thorn wasn't able to finish his sentence. He unfortunately came down with a horrible syndrome of silver arrows to the face. Once I saw those arrows I practically felt the misandry. Sure enough, when I turned around, I saw the silver clothing of the Huntresses of Artemis. Arrows loaded and pointed at me. I could tell that they wanted nothing more than to send them flying at me. It wasn't their entire group though, but instead what appeared to be a scouting party of ten.

"Dammit you bitch! That was my kill. Now I'm only going to get an assist. This is bullshit you know," I said sarcastically. My joke was greeted with no response, but instead multiple angry eyes staring at me. Out of all of them I only recognized one pair; Zoe Nightshade's eyes.

"Do not talk to us in that way, abomination," Zoe said coldly

"Oh, and hello to you to Zoe. You know, maybe you guys shouldn't treat me as the enemy since were technically on the same side I'd be nice to know that I'm wanted once and a while."

"Percy!" Luke screamed. He was a little ways behind us, but he was still able to see us. Once he arrived he shared the similar face of disgust I had. I guess I should fill you in on our history with the Huntresses. Our history is a very …. defective one at best. I'm not going to bore you with the details right now, but I'll tell say things were said, lines were crossed, people were killed. Hell, it's no wonder the Huntresses still treat me and Luke like we're abominations. To them we really still are abominations. Not saying the Huntresses didn't think that other men were sacks of shit, but they seem to treat us as above sacks of shit. We seemed to be barely human like and though of us as more hellhound like than human. That doesn't mean it necessarily hurts. I've always thought of the huntresses as being teenaged angst fueled misandrists, so they can think anything they like of me. I don't give two shits in the end.

"So wheres your queen? I thought Artemis always shows up when you're around?" Zoe grunted at my response.

"Don't act like you know our routine, abomination."

"Oh, I can tell that your hatred for me is as passionate and angry as ever. It's nice to know you haven't changed." Zoe didn't respond, but instead gave me a look that suggested that she wanted to slowly disembowel me and then force me to eat my entrails.

"Artemis is back at camp with the rest of the Huntresses. She's ordering you to bring back the two demigods that you've found. Especially the girl," Zoe said as her eyes fixated on the female demigod.

"Oh wow! Trying to recruit ignorant demigods without any idea what opportunities may lay ahead. Amazing tactic Artemis came up with," I said sarcastically.

"Don't question our methods, abomination," Zoe said coldly.

"The girl has absolutely no idea what is going on right now. She probably doesn't even know what a demigod is. Show her Camp Half Blood or Camp Jupiter before she make an oath that will bond her for her entire life. I'm just saying."

"Just follow us, and don't stare at us for extended periods."

"Please. I'd rather gouge out my own eyes with a spoon than stare at you." Zoe turned around to begin to walk. "Oh wait! Zoe, can I borrow your hunting knife? You see I have this manticore that I'd said I eat, and I feel like if I don't eat it I'm kinda letting everyone that he's eaten down. Zoe just kept walking and didn't respond. "Well, my chances weren't too high when I said that anyway." I muttered less than quietly. "Alright than. Luke, help me with this manticore. I'm not going to let one stuck up huntress ruin my meal." We both squatted down and picked up Thorn. As we proceeded to walk, I felt a tug on my coat.

"Excuse me, if you don't mind me asking, what's going on right now?" the young girl with black hair said.

"Well I guess this isn't a better time than any. Walk with me and I'll answer the basics." The siblings nodded.

"So you two are have half-gods, half- humans or demigods. The greek kind, not the hindu, egyptian, or norse kind, and you two aren't some ordinary, run of mill demigods either. Apparently both of you our special. Not as special as some others such as mau, but you guys hold up enough for us to be the one's to get you."

"Wait, how is this even possib-!"

"That sounds awesome!" her brother interrupted.

"Nico, the greek gods aren't even real!"  
"Interesting you say that… what is your name?" Luke said.

"Bianca, Bianca De'Angelo," Bianca said politely.

"Well Bianca did you believe in the Christian god Yahweh?

"Yes, yes I did."

"Well, if that god can exist, it isn't a big stretch for the Greek gods to exist. Besides, omniscient is a foolish concept in my opinion," Luke said bluntly.

"Besides, it's good that you were once a Christian because at least you'll be used to a lot of unanswered questions," Luke said calmly

"And you've already seen some pretty supernatural shit, so both of you are in no room to doubt," I added

"But enough about the gods," I interrupted "Your life stories are much more interesting than the immortal deities that rule above us, I jokingly stated.

She seemed reluctant to talk, but after nugging her, she began to speak.

"Me and Nico's are dead. We orphans, but there's a bank trust that pays for our tuition."

"Sounds pretty ordinary if you ask me."

"Wait! I have a question, Mr. Percy!" the young boy whose name was Nico said excitedly.

"And that would be?" Nico's smile grew twice the size of his face.

"Does Zeus really have lightning bolts that do 600 damage."

"Nico! Enough with that Mythomagic game. It's obvious that we can't waste their time with absurd-."

"His lightning bolts do 630 to be exact, but that's a bunch of small fish. I have lightning bolts that do 4600 damage points, and that's not even including my wind powers!"

Nico's face looked like it would burst any second!

"That's amazing! Are you saying that you overthrew Zeus, and now you're running Olympus with brand new gods?"

"Well, I'm still working for them, but I more of what you'd call a hired arm. I go in, do their work, and get paid, so were like mercenaries in a sense."

"Who are those girls with the silver clothing?" Bianca asked

"Oh, those are the Huntresses of Artemis. I recommend you stay away from the as humanly possible."  
"Why? They look… sensational," Bianca said with amazement.

"Oh god no! They have you in their trap now! Next thing you know you'll be cutting of men's genitals and shoving them down the garbage disposal! Oh the inhumanity! Where did I go wrong!" I said over dramatically.

"But that doesn't explain why I shouldn't join them?" Bianca questioned.

"Oh right. I probably should actually give you a reason instead of doing something completely overdone and unfunny. To start, the Huntresses are extremely sexist towards men. Talk about gender reversal. Secondly if you join them, you're bond till death, so if you ever want out, I recommend using your own blade. The list goes on and on, but I'll save you the trouble of listening to me talk." Bianca looked at the Huntresses with a gleam in her eyes. I sighed. "If you're thinking of joining them, you should at least see camp half blood first. You should expand your options before joining one or the other." She nodded, but I didn't think she took my words to heart. Soon small little gleams of orange came into my view, and a little after that, the Hunteress' camp came into full view. I was actually glad to see the Huntress' camp for once; Thorn was beginning to get heavy, and my mouth was beginning to water. When we walked into the camp, hateful stares came at me and to a lesser extent, Luke. The Huntresses' camp had multiple modern camping tents scattered everywhere around the camp, roaring fires were meat was being cooked, and one giant hut in the center of the camp.  
"Perseus Jackson," a familiar cold voice said calmly. When I turned around, the cold, metallic eyes of the hunting god stared at me. Out of all the gods I've met, Artemis' regular form is the least godly to me. She has the appearance of a twelve year old girl with auburn hair and silver eyes that were slightly warmer than Siberia's average temperature, but other than the eyes, there wasn't anything noticeably inhuman or god like. Even Hestia, another god that had the form of a child, looked more god like than her. You see Hestia has this aura that she knows more than her appearance lets on. Artemis doesn't have that, but she does have an aura that would suggest authority. It's kinda like a general's aura. I experienced that aura when I first met Artemis, but since her aura quickly fades away when I realized that she wasn't all that intimidating. She cringed when our eyes met.

"Oh, Artemis. It's a pleasure to see you! How have you been, dear?" I said with so much sarcasm that I thought that my throat would dry up. Artemis' glare intensified

"Come in my tent. I have something to tell you."

"And that something would be?"

"Private information."

"If it's private info why are you telling me?"

"Just come in, abomination," she said aggressively.

"And there comes the passive aggressive nature. It seems to be contagious considering the majority of your Huntresses feel like carbon copies of you. The only difference being that some of them hate me more than you do."  
"Don't speak to my Huntresses like that, Abomination, or else I'll have your head," she said sternly  
"Fine. You can have it if you want. Seriously I'll do it," I said as I pulled out my sword and began to cut my neck. "You can keep it if you want; It'll grow back. Besides, I know my face helps you sleep at night."

"I didn't mean I would actually cut your head off you idiot!" Artemis said furious.

"Ok! Serves me right for trying to do something nice for you, Arty. Besides, it's actually really hard to cut your own head off. I was gonna ask if you could do it for me, but I didn't wanna be rude."  
"Your very presence is draining to me."

"well, that just means I'm doing my job."

"Just get in the tent!" Artemis said with clear frustration.

"K." The tent's outside appearance didn't give it justice. The inside of the tent was decorated with animal pelts from deer hides to hydra scales, a fine mahogany wood floor, and silver arrows, bows, and knives on wooden plaques. Artemis took a seat on a wooden desk in the center of the room and motioned me to sit. The chair was rock hard and very rough and unpolished. If felt like it had been personally chosen for my own discomfort

"So what's so important that you have to tell me in private? Another destroy this enemy base quest or fetch this magical item quest?" I said as I scooted in my chair. Artemis looked at me as if she was considering saying a remark or just flat out telling me.

"It's not that. It's something that actually matters," Artemis said seriously. I raised my eyebrow.

"Define actually matters."

"You are aware of the titan, Iapetus?"

I nodded.

"The titan of the west. The original lord of the underworld," I said

Artemis looked grim before she said it.

"He's escaped along with many of his siblings." I'll admit I'm not someone to be easily surprised by something, but this was pretty shocking. Bringing someone back from the Tartarus was thought to be nearly impossible. You would've had to somehow find a way into Tartarus, break into the maximum security zone of Tartarus which is guarded by the Hekatonkheires, and the hardest part, somehow opening the doors of death either by taking control away from Thanatos or using brute force, and let me tell you both of them are very hard. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why I'd be stumped.

"Who did it?" I said curiously. To be honest, I can't really say that I care about Iapetus or his siblings that much. He was about on par with Artemis, and I had already defeated Artemis two years ago. The person that actually peaked my interest was the one who set Iapetus and the rest free. He/she was obviously stronger than Iapetus and maybe all of the Olympians if it was able to free Iapetus from Tartarus.

"Unfortunately, we do not know who the perpetrator is, but we do know that he was able to free Iapetus from his imprisonment and open the doors of death with brute force along. When we noticed their absence, we sent out a scout who found Iapetus traveling to an airport near los Angeles with a cloaked figure who we suspect to be the one who set them free. When he was spotted, we lost communications with him,"

"I wouldn't predict his survival rates to be too high."

"Anyway, the spy saw that they had bought tickets to Florence, Italy."  
"What about the locations of the other titans?"

"The locations of the other titans is unknown, but the ones who were set free were Hyperion, Krios, and Koios. They've likely already made their way to Kronus' army. I'll actually be abandoning the hunt to scout them."

"Great. Why not invite Atlas and make it a party."

"I hope you're kidding," she muttered

"All depends on how you interpret it," I said smiling. Artemis scowled at me like an angry dog before sobering back to her original face.  
"This is going to be your very first real quest. You and a few others are going to hunt down Iapetus and the one who set him free. You'll have to speak with the oracle in camp half blood before proceeding." An angry sigh escaped my lips. Now the reason I was angry wasn't because I had to go to camp half blood or do a quest with more people than just me and Luke. It's because I'm going on a quest that will likely take at least a week. This normally wouldn't be a problem but considering that I've spent the last two weeks freezing my ass of in Siberia, I don't think I want to do a quest any time soon. I couldn't tell Artemis that of course. She likely wouldn't care because Artemis' heart is as cold as her eyes; stone cold and never a degree warmer. I did have someone who might actually be able to get me out of this quest, but I should try to make it seem like I'm going in front of Artemis.

"Aw shit. I hate company," I said. When the Olympians first instilled their trust in me, they sent out an overseer to make sure I wasn't plotting anything against their back. It was the rational thing to do considering that at one point I did actually join Cronus. I told you the war between the titans and the Olympians is more complicated than I explained, but I digress. The reason they stopped making an overseer necessary was because they kept dying in the process. At first they thought I killed them, but after I swore on the river Styx eighty something times, they decided that I wasn't going to try anything. Soon after that the overseers stopped being necessary. Me and Luke have been doing missions on are own ever since, but this felt like the ball and chain was coming back on.

"Why? Me and Luke don't need a babysitter," I said firmly as I stood up from my chair.

"This is not a regular mission, abomination. It's a quest and your first one at that. You're going to need more people than you and Luke."  
"But both me and Luke are stronger and more skilled than any other Huntress or demigod you can tack on to us."

"This is not just about strength, boy. You two may be skilled, but you two lack experience. You're going to need guidance." Seeing that I wouldn't be winning this argument any time soon, I stopped arguing.

"Alright, who's going to be joining us," I said as I sat back down.  
"I do not know that yet, but You'll find out when you get to Camp Half Blood."

"Great. Going to another place that completely hates me except that one guy that actually doesn't."

"Stop complaining, and leave my tent now."

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered as I got up and walked out. Larger snowflakes hit my cheeks as I exited the tent. I spotted Luke with the Di Angelo siblings.

"What did Artemis need to tell you?" Luke asked curiously.

"I'll tell you later, but you wouldn't happen to have a dracma on you would you?"

"What's a dracma," Nico asked curiously. Luke pulled the coin out from his coat pocket and flipped it at me.

"God currency," I said I stumbled to catch. I bounced around my hands before I caught it completely. I took the coin and placed it on my Rolex. The coin began to slowly dissolve into the watch like it was being melted. "Luke follow me; I have to take a call. When I felt like we were a suitable distance from the camp, I called my father. "I want to speak with my father," I commanded to the watch. The clock began to blur like an old fashioned tv before showing the image I wanted. A man with electric blue eyes that were possibly charged with electricity at this very moment, long gray and black hair, and a beard that strangely reminded me of Santa Claus. He was wearing a purple pin stripe suit that probably would've made the god of fashion hurl, but despite his odd appearance, my father, Zeus, was the king of the Olympians. It's actually kind of odd calling the king of the gods my dad mainly because I didn't know who my father was until two years ago, and I never met him in person until a year ago. Also, during that one year period he was trying to capture me and put me on a death row trial, so considering that my mom's dead and my dad tried to kill me more than a few times, our family dinners can get pretty awkward.

"Percy!" He said shockingly as if he didn't expect me.

"Hey pops, so about that mission in Siberia."

"Oh, I heard that you ran into some trouble whe-"

"If you have to dock some of our pay to afford a better plane than just do it! It's better than having us ride in that death trap!" I know that it's probably not a good idea to yell at the king of the gods unless you want to become smashed cherry jello, but when you die twenty times and get mauled by a wolverine, wolf, bear, lynx, and a siberian tiger you can ride that high horse all the way to the fucking sun.

"Right," He said awkwardly. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience you've had to deal with. How shall I make it up to both of you?" he said meekly. I turned to Luke.

"Whaddaya say Luke?" Luke smiled wryly.

"Well considering the apparent torture Percy had to go through, I think a raise in our pay would be acceptable," Luke said smiling.

"Alright then. Double I assume?"  
"Square," Luke corrected.

"Alright than, Luke. Your payments have been sent to your bank accounts. Don't blow it all in one night, Percy," dad said.

"Alright," I muttered

"I also want to discuss the quest we've been assigned," I said seriously.  
"We're going on a quest?" Luke said as he turned towards me.

"Yeah, that's what I was going to tell you, but I don't think we're going to be going on it."

"Why," my father said suspiciously

"Dad, we've been doing missions for two weeks straight. I'm not going to go on another for gods now how long. It's just too much work, and I need a vacation from all of it. Maybe the Caribbean would be good. Uncle Poseidon may be able to set us up with a cruise."

"Percy, you do not understand the gravity of this quest," dad said calmly.

"Dad, please!" I said using my best do this for your son voice.

"No!" he said sternly. "Both of you our going to go on this quest, and I don't care about your feelings on the matter! Goodbye, Percy."  
"Alright," I sighed. "Bye dad."

"Wait!" Luke said. "How much are we going to get for this quest?" Luke said.

"Well considering this is your first major quest, if you capture Iapetus and the perpetrator, both of you will get one billion each." You know how old cartoon characters eyes turned into dollars signs when they're going to receive a lot of cash? I think my eyes did that for a second because I hadn't received that much money in my entire life. My father's image began to flicker before fading away entirely.

"Well, looks like we've got a new quest on our hands," I said smiling.

"I love how your entire mood towards something can change when money starts to get involved."  
"Well, I am someone who can be bought, but I also have a sneaking suspicion that you can be as well." Luke shrugged his shoulders.

"I may be half god but in the end I still have the desires of a human."  
"Well at least you're admitting it. C'mon lets get back to camp before the hunters start celebrating our leave." And like that, both of us walked out of the dark shrubbery and back into the warmth of the misandrists' fires.


End file.
